Every year, about 20,000 visitors and another 16,000 schoolchildren enter through the massive bronze doors of the legislative building in Olympia. “Does Trump live here?” is a perennial question. Sorry, kids—this is Washington state, not Washington, D.C.—but it’s easy to see how they could make that mistake.

The legislative building, completed in 1928, is designed to wow. It’s home to the tallest masonry dome in North America. Believe it or not, the only thing holding that dome together is gravity.

The legislative building, along with the capitol campus, is open to the public. There are 42 steps to the entrance, which is intentional because Washington is the 42nd state. You can wander around the building on a self-guided tour or join a 50-minute guided tour. It’s a really nice way to spend a day, and it’s all free. Even parking is free on weekends ($2 an hour on weekdays). Volunteer guides lead tours of the legislative building six times a day on weekdays and four times on weekends. No tickets or reservations are needed—just walk up to the information desk inside the main entrance. Tours take place nearly every day of the year, except for Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

Tip: The capitol campus hosts 200 students a day from January to June. Visit outside those months for easy parking and a quieter experience.

World’s largest Tiffany chandelier in the rotunda of the legislative building.

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

Find the butterfly in the Italian marble on the walls of the state reception room.

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

When you step onto the rotunda floor, you’ll see why this space hosts proms and weddings in addition to bill signings and speeches. It’s impressive. Stand next to the state seal in the middle of the floor and look up 287 feet to the top of the cupola. You could set the Statue of Liberty on the seal and it’d fit in the building.

The light fixtures throughout the building are designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany—yes, as in Tiffany & Co. The world’s largest Tiffany chandelier hangs in the middle of the rotunda. At the time, it cost $1 per pound, so $10,000 for the 5-ton bronze chandelier.

Another showstopper on the tour is the state reception room, which is used as a formal receiving room for dignitaries and curious tourists. The slabs of veined Italian marble on the walls act like a giant Rorschach test. Can you find the butterfly? How about the dead rat? If you play piano, you’re invited to try out the historic Blüthner piano in the corner.

This room is where legislators stop by to greet school groups. About 250 schools tour the capitol campus every year. “The kids ask the most interesting questions,” says Jamie Bassett, tours program supervisor. “They always want to know if there is any gold in the building.” Psst, there is, but it’s not super obvious. Look closely—the curtains in the state reception room contain a bit of gold thread.

If you email ahead, you can request free outdoor tours of the capitol’s memorials and horticulture. Each one is about an hour long. The memorial tour takes you to poignant monuments honoring Washingtonians who died in wars and in the line of duty.

The botanical tour takes you through the original plans by the Olmsted Brothers, the same landscape design firm behind New York City’s Central Park. “It’s a museum of trees,” says public tours supervisor Jesse Morrow. “There are a lot of trees on the tour.” You’ll visit the national champion English oak, the largest of its kind in the country. Outside the governor’s mansion are the three magnolias Gov. Gary Locke planted for his three children, and the dogwood Gov. Chris Gregoire planted for her daughter’s wedding. 

The Winged Victory statue features Nike, Greek goddess of victory, and honors Washingtonians who died in World War I.

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

While capitol tours are strictly apolitical, you’ll learn some fun trivia about our elected leaders. Did you know Gov. Bob Ferguson’s cat has his own Instagram page? Give the feline influencer a follow at @first.cat.peter. And if you’re looking for the governor himself, he’s the guy with the red JanSport backpack and the lime LaCroix.

The post Capitol Curiosity appeared first on Seattle magazine.

Butcher at HK BBQ Master at Real Canadian Superstore

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

Welcome to Richmond, B.C., a city geographically in North America but whose heart and soul directly channel Asia. Almost 70 percent of the population of this busy suburb of Vancouver is Asian, according to the 2021 census. The Chinese community alone accounts for 54 percent of Richmond residents.

What’s the star attraction here? Eat, digest, repeat. Come with baggy clothes and Canadian cash, go home with a fresh ’do, and a full belly. This is the place to go for Asian haircuts and to satisfy your palate for Asian food.

The hub of Richmond’s dining scene is the imaginatively named No. 3 Road, where Asian restaurants are world class. You can’t go wrong. Locals swear by Sun Sui Wah or Kirin for dim sum. Go to Top Shanghai for the most authentic food, right down to the surly service. Try the fish balls and noodle soup at Neptune Seafood Restaurant, and xiao long bao at Dinesty Dumpling House. Kam Do for not too sweet pastries. Just don’t look for a P.F. Chang’s.

Eating at Top Shanghai

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

Most establishments are open long hours, typically 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Parking is a breeze; this is the suburbs, after all.

Commitment shy? Don’t settle on a single restaurant. Wander through the Aberdeen Centre food court so you can pick and choose. A stop at T&T Supermarket in Yaohan Centre yielded a solid breakfast of soy milk and fan tuan. The $5.99 CAD made-to-order sticky rice roll comes with your choice of four fillings. My selection — preserved pickles, dried pork, Chinese donut, marinated eggs — tasted like home.

To go at T&T Super Market

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

Produce stall at The Crystal Mall

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

For a fully immersive experience, The Crystal Mall, in neighboring Burnaby, is stepping straight into Asia. Travel agencies, dentists, produce stalls, an amazing food court — everything and anything you need to conduct life, entirely in Chinese. If you don’t speak Chinese, just point. If you don’t know what’s good, look for a long line. Like the one at the tofu shop on the ground floor, always a reliable sign. The Crystal Mall has not one, but two $15 CAD haircut salons. We spotted frozen dumplings, 40 pieces for $18 CAD, a steal of a price but too risky to bring across the border.

Haircuts at The Crystal Mall

JiaYing Grygiel

Only because it is physically impossible to eat nonstop (believe me, I’ve tried), take a break between meals at Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment. If anything, running around this nature-themed playground will help you work up an appetite. Terra Nova, a 12-minute drive west of Richmond’s central eating district, looks unlike any other playground you’ve been to. Features include a 115-foot long tandem zipline and a 30-foot-tall spiral slide. Cue parental heart attack.

Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

Do not go home without going for a swim. I’m not kidding. If you are used to freezing and dilapidated city pools with a perennial lifeguard shortage, you will never swim anywhere but Richmond’s Minoru Centre again. Repeat after me: Posh. Public. Pool. The water is warmed to a cozy 89.6 degrees, it’s open every day except Christmas Day, it’s $4.70 CAD a person for a family. There’s a lazy river, a leisure pool with a double-wide slide, Canada’s largest hot pool, a drop slide with a 5-foot freefall. The changing rooms are individual stalls with showers in each, filling this mother of boys with gratitude. Seattle, I hope you’re taking notes.

Minoru Center Public Swimming Pool

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

JiaYing Grygiel is a photographer and writer in Seattle. Her work has been featured in The Seattle Times, Seattle’s Child, ParentMap, JoySauce, TODAY Parents, and more. Find her on Instagram @photoj.seattle and at photoj.net.

The post How to do Richmond, B.C., like a local appeared first on Seattle magazine.

But, as is frequently the case, our parents deserve more credit than we give them. “I’ve probably known since you were 5 years old,” she told him. “I’ve just been waiting for you to come out for years.”

After that, their relationship changed. “She’s much more chill and open to the decisions I make,” Gaw says. “Moments like that, after I came out, really helped me push forward. I think I was scared to share because I was afraid of people judging me.”

Gaw needed that confidence to pursue the huge leap he took in October 2020, when he quit a lucrative career as a UX designer to follow his passion: writing a very personal cookbook about growing up Taiwanese-American, straddling two cultures, losing his dad, being gay. And of course, food is the through-line he follows, his grandmas’ recipes for Taiwanese home cooking tempered with the Cracker Barrels and Chipotles of his suburban upbringing.

Frankie Gaw

Photo courtosy of Frankie Gaw

First Generation: Recipes from my Taiwanese-American Home will be released Oct. 25 on Ten Speed Press. It’s a culmination of the everyday comfort food recipes Gaw spent years cultivating on his food blog, Little Fat Boy, named after the childhood nickname his family affectionately gave him because he loved dumplings so much. During pandemic Zoom meetings, he was all business up top. Below the camera, he’d be kneading dough or stirring noodles. His blog, and now cookbook, focuses on dishes he grew up eating—fan tuan, stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, tea eggs, scallion pancakes—alongside fusion dishes born out of him growing up in an immigrant Taiwanese family in the Midwest.

“I want people to make delicious food and get joy out of eating dumplings, noodles—things that have brought me a lot of joy,” Gaw says.

Born in Cincinnati but currently living in Seattle, the 31-year-old is unapologetic in the way he has redefined Taiwanese American cooking in his book, drawing on his favorite comfort foods as well as what he was exposed to through family meals. 

Fan tuan with tomato and egg.

Frankie Gaw/“First Generation: Recipes from my Taiwanese-American Home”

What does that look like? Cross-pollinating the Costco corn dogs he ate after school with the Chinese sausage he loved from dim sum for a recipe called Lap cheong corn dogs, or creating a scallion mac ‘n’ “cheese” with a cashew-based sauce to appease both his love of Olive Garden and lactose intolerance. 

Gaw’s cookbook also includes the best definition of pork floss I’ve ever seen: “dehydrated pork jerky.” Aha! You try explaining pork floss to someone who didn’t grow up with it. “I think people get really freaked out by it because it looks like hair”—yeah, no kidding—“but it’s just American jerky, shredded. It’s all about perspective,” Gaw says.

Taiwanese food, for him, was experienced through his grandmas, who both immigrated to the United States. Gaw and his partner moved to Seattle two years ago, partly to be closer to his surviving grandma. He never claims to be an expert on Taiwanese food—he’s only ever visited Taiwan twice. Instead, his cookbook is an expression of his identity as a first-generation immigrant.

Fried chicken gua bao.

Frankie Gaw/“First Generation: Recipes from my Taiwanese-American Home”

“As a kid, I separated those pieces of myself, the Taiwanese piece and the American piece,” Gaw says. “A lot of the recipes that blur the lines are about celebrating the fun you have as someone who shares multiple cultures.”

“I’ve always felt imposter syndrome,” Gaw says. “I wanted to celebrate that feeling of not belonging and that in-betweenness. I don’t feel familiar with my Taiwanese heritage, but then I also don’t belong with my American heritage.”

I had to ask Gaw what his mom thought of him walking away from a lucrative tech career to pursue writing and cooking. You know, stereotypical Asian mom, the kind with really strict rules about really benign things? The eat-your-carrots-or-go-blind mom?

Gaw laughed. “My mom is very supportive overall,” he says. She even tried to use the opportunity to convince her only child to move back home to Cincinnati. Spoiler alert: he turned her down.

Growing up, both Gaw’s parents worked full-time, so he could usually convince his folks to take him to McDonald’s at least once a week after school. They’d pull their minivan up to the drive-thru; his dad loved getting a giant Coke and chicken nuggets, and he’d get a Big Mac or a quarter pounder.

Golden beet shu mai.

Frankie Gaw/“First Generation: Recipes from my Taiwanese-American Home”

For holiday meals with his grandma and aunt, everyone sat around the kitchen island or the dining table eating enormous, juicy lion’s head meatballs. And kid Gaw would think, “Oooh, this would be so good with bread.”

For his cookbook, Gaw made that lion’s head meatball Big Mac happen, with four meatballs’ worth of pork.

“Lemme just try that and see how it goes,” Gaw remembers thinking. “It was so satisfying. I get the Big Mac, but I also get the flavors of lion’s head. It was very cool to be able to tap into two memories at the same time.”

The Lion’s Head Meatball Big Mac recipe can be found in First Generation. You can order the book ($32.50) from any of these retailers.

Want to taste-test that Taiwanese-American hybrid yourself? Here’s Gaw’s recipe:

The lion’s head Big Mac.

Frankie Gaw/“First Generation: Recipes from my Taiwanese-American Home”

Lion’s Head Big Macs

Excerpted from First Generation by Frankie Gaw, courtesy of Ten Speed Press

Makes 6 sandwiches

Ingredients

Scallion ginger water

1 cup water

6 scallions, green and white parts, chopped

1 thumb-sized slice ginger, peeled

Meat patties

2 pounds ground pork

4 tablespoons scallion ginger water (see above)

2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine or sherry

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons light brown sugar or granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 egg whites, beaten until frothy and opaque

5 tablespoons cornstarch

1⁄2 cup chicken stock

Canola oil or vegetable oil

Sauce

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 1⁄2 teaspoons ketchup

1⁄2 teaspoon yellow mustard

2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish

1⁄2 teaspoon honey

1⁄2 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1⁄2 teaspoon chili pepper sauce (like Sriracha)

Buns

6 hamburger buns, halved

Toppings

Sliced cheddar cheese

Cold marinated pickles

Sliced white onion

Napa cabbage leaves

Make the scallion ginger water:

In a blender, blend together the water, scallions, and ginger. Strain through a fine-mesh metal sieve and set the liquid aside.

Make the meat patties:

Chop the ground pork until the texture becomes finer and fluffier. In a large mixing bowl, combine the pork, 4 tablespoons of the scallion ginger water, the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Mix with your hands until the mixture is well incorporated and sticky.

Mix in the egg whites. In a small mixing bowl, whisk 2 tablespoons of the cornstarch and the chicken stock together, and add it to the meat mixture.

Mix with your hands to incorporate everything (you can even pick up the mixture and throw it back down into the bowl to create the optimal texture). Cover the bowl and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce:

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, honey, vinegar, and chili pepper sauce to combine.

Shape and cook the patties:

In a medium mixing bowl, dissolve the remaining 3 tablespoons cornstarch in 5 tablespoons of water. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm 1 tablespoon oil. Dip your hands into the cornstarch water and with wet hands form the meat mixture into 6 patties, tossing the meat between your hands to coat evenly with the cornstarch. Flatten the patties and place them directly on the hot skillet.

Cook the patties in batches as needed, pan-frying each side for 4 to 5 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.

Assemble the sandwiches:

Place one meat patty onto the bottom half of a bun. Top the patty with a slice of cheese and then pickles, onions, and cabbage. Spread some sauce onto the top half of the bun and place over the meat patty and toppings. Repeat for the remaining patties and buns, and serve immediately.

Frankie Gaw/“First Generation: Recipes from my Taiwanese-American Home”

Frankie Gaw

Originally published on Joysauce.

The post Taiwanese home cooking meets the Midwest appeared first on Seattle magazine.